Chorizo and Chickpea casserole

This is very much a winter comfort dish - filling, spicy and just the thing on a wet windy night. With the icy grasp of winter now gripping the ballsack of the country, this hearty meal will keep you toasty.

I was looking for something to do with chickpeas - I'm trying to broaden my diet and these are supposed to be good for you. They don't taste of much but they're alright, I suppose. The local supermarket now stocks a very good Chorizo and the two mesh very well in this recipe, which I found on this website: http://www.sausagelinks.co.uk/index.asp

I've made some changes to their recipe. This will easily serve 4 and probably 6. Scale recipe up or down to suit your needs.

You will need:

1 medium saucepan
1 large casserole dish.
Ingredients:

200 g dried chorizo, peeled and sliced into thick coins
A few pork sausages, skinned and crumbled (optional)
Pigs trotter (ask the butcher to clean and split this for you) or a ham hock
2 cans of chickpeas, drained
Large can of chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Large onion, sliced into rings
Pinch of sweet paprika (optional)
Salt and black pepper

The pig's trotter isn't mandatory - I didn't have one and it still tasted fine. If you don't have red wine vinegar, use plain red wine. It says cans of chickpeas but I soaked and boiled the dried ones, which I find to have a better texture and no aftertaste. I used roughly 1 1/2 cups of dried chickpeas, left in a bowl of water overnight.

Heat some olive oil in a large casserole, add the trotter and brown for 10 minutes. Add the onion rings and cook until softened, add the chorizo coins and any other sausage meat. Cook gently for a further 10 minutes, add the wine vinegar, tomatoes and chick peas. If you are using a ham hock add this now. Cover and gently simmer for 1 hour. Taste and adjust seasoning - you may not need any salt if you have used a ham hock. Remove the trotter/ham hock, remove meat and return to the pan.

Serve with crusty bread and a green salad.

For the green salad, I recommend something with rocket (roquette), which is a peppery leaf which goes very well with chorizo. The recipe says a 'pinch' of paprika but if you like it spicy - and I do - a couple of dried chillies, crushed in your hands into the casserole dish before it goes in the oven, adds some real fire to this recipe.

Drink with: Probably a heavy, oaky type red wine - one of the Aussie ones, perhaps, in a large glass.

Ease of cooking and preparation: 4/5 - Very straightforward, needs stirring intermittently but can be left to simmer. Requires forward planning, though, to make sure the chickpeas are soaked.

Mess Factor: 4/5 - Barely any mess at all, and just one cooking pot and one saucepan.

Leftover value: 2/5 - I'm going to mark this one down. It's not a morning-after snack. It does reheat really well for a second or even third day, but the thought of cold leftover casserole makes me queasy.